The United States Football League played three seasons of spring football between 1983 and 1985. The USFL had 12 franchises in 1983, expanded to 18 in 1984, and shrunk to 14 for its final season. In all, 22 cities hosted teams in the USFL during its three-year existence. The league folded in August 1986, after winning only $3 in damages in a multi-billion dollar anti-trust court case against the NFL.

Every USFL franchise produced a high-quality media guide for each of the league’s three seasons. There are 44 regular season team guides in all. The league itself produced a media guide in 1983, but not in subsequent seasons, possibly because The Sporting News published thick USFL Registers in 1984 and 1985 that offered the same information (and more). These are now highly sought after. Several teams also produced lower-quality pre-season prospectus’ and post-season media guides (often without photos) and an incomplete gallery of those publications is offered at the bottom of this page.

USFL guides often featured wonderful artwork and illustrations, sometimes featuring players who went on to great achievements in the NFL including Jim Kelly (1984 & 1985 Houston Gamblers guides), Doug Williams (1984 Oklahoma Outlaws guide) and Steve Young (1985 Los Angeles Express guide).

Individually, they typically go from anywhere from $5 – $15 on e-Bay. If you have full annual sets, you might get $75 – $100 per year. Maybe more if they are in the original USFL 3-ring binders that the league distributed to some teams/media. I’d say $200 – $300 retail for the set at auction assuming they are in great shape. A dealer would likely offer less.

The problem is that there are only a limited number of collectors and most already have some of these guides in their collection. In other words, finding someone with a great desire to own these – yet doesn’t have any already – might take some time. If you decide to sell, e-Bay is the easiest way to find a buyer.